The question is- What questions do I ask?!

 I am nearing the point of interviewing participants for my study. For some reason, when planning for this method of data collection I was fairly relaxed about the prospect of sitting face to face with someone and asking numerous questions. However, now the reality is approaching I am experiencing that familiar anxiety which causes me to question my capabilities as a human being...........But the bottom line is, interviewing isn’t just a case of waltzing in and asking whatever comes to mind! Rather there are so many factors to consider such as-

How to make the participant feel at ease.
How to ask questions which allow for expanse rather than closed responses.
How to encourage colour and description, or 'story telling' which is what differentiates a qualitative interview from a quantitive research project.
Who do I approach? How do I approach them?
How many notes can I take without being absent from the conversational engagement?
Will I be tempted to recall my own experiences even though this goes against interview etiquette?
and perhaps most importantly….
 

What do I ask? 

                       What do I want to find out??

I have recently been listening to the audiobook version of Learning from strangers, the art and method of qualitative study by Robert R Weiss. I have found this literature very helpful when considering my interview prep. Weiss has a way of explaining a concept in detail whilst maintaining simplicity. The following phrase is a good example of this:
 

"Being a good interviewer requires knowing what kind of information the study needs and being able to help the respondent provide it” (Weiss, 1995, p.66).

How wonderfully succinct? And dare I say it -obvious. Yet my mind is already going down a rabbit hole, predicting the nonsense I may ask which would lead a participant off on a tangent. But no. According to Weiss, one must consider the substantive frame of the research, meaning the topics of interest the study is aiming to explore further (p.15).
Therefore, I decided to use a previous area of learning and create a mind map to think about topics/issues of relevance. From these topics, I expanded the map to create lines of enquiry.

From the above mind map, I have started to build an interview guide which will aid the semi structured format I planned to use. The guide should not be absolute with no opportunity for adjustment. If I followed it rigidly question by question then I’d be reducing the capacity for intriguing storytelling. A guide should be just that -a guide, rather than a list of constrained categories which may inhibit participants from telling their own story in their own fashion. (Magnusson & Marecek, 2015). 

I came across a Youtube video which gives some helpful advice for creating an interview guide. The short clip focuses on the importance of asking open ended questions and gives useful recommendations for how to structure a guide.

Figure 1: 6 Tips for designing a Semistructured Interview

Although the specific data content I aim to collect is important, I must not forget that the quality of data will partly depend on the atmosphere I am able to establish. Ultimately, I want the participants to feel at ease so that the encounter feels more like a casual conversation rather than a formal interview. Ideally, the participant's narrative will be rich enough to inspire themes in my analysis, which I can connect with relevent literature and triagulate with my own personal experiences. 

Because the majority of my interviews are conducted with participants I know, I’m predicting that there should be an element of comfort, although it’s looking more likely that I will need to Skype the interviewees because of logistical barriers. A face to face setting would be preferable as it allows for the capturing of nuances, facial expressions and gestures which add colour to a story.

However, Thankfully, I have chosen to record the data (which will of course be safely stored as per my ethical agreement, and disposed of as soon as the data has been amalgamated into my analysis). This means I can make very brief notes during the interview, without the pressure of scribing each spoken paragraph. Adesola gave me the helpful tip to record the time in minutes at moments of significance. This means I can easily trace parts of the interview I’d like to revisit.

Finally, I must mention that one of the hardest things I am experiencing, is trying NOT to lead my participants into an area of familiarity. ie- I don’t want to lead them down a trail into clarifying what I already hypothesise. It would be very easy of me to pick participants I know have struggled with strict teachers, and who worry about the impact this has on self esteem. I even know fellow dancers  who blame their eating disorder on their experiences in dance training.
But it is in the unexpected that ideas and patterns arise. I can’t fully predict what I expect to find, and having the integrity to question my own assumptions is an important part of the research process. Therefore, my interviews questions may need adapting after each participant as I may want change direction slightly. Uwe Flick (2006) explains that research questions will be reformulated which will help map a journey of inquiry. Decisions made my the researcher may also be significant in discovering the unknown. (p.105). This frightens me, considering I am a bit of a control freak who dislikes unpredictability! But by being reflexive throughout the process I will do my best to remain openly curious.

I am excited to explore different perspectives, and my hope is that different viewpoints will impact on my professional practice. The way I teach is a result of all my past experiences but there is always something new to learn! I hope that I can keep becoming a better teacher day by day- and no doubt the interviews will be a stepping stone to my professional development. (Fingers crossed!)

References

Flick, U. (2006). An introduction to qualitative research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

 
Magnusson, E., & Marecek, J. (2015). Designing the interview guide. Doing Interview-based Qualitative Research: A Learner's Guide (pp. 46-57). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781107449893.005
 

Qualitative Research Specialists, I. (Producer). (2018, February 15). Semi-structured interviews guide I semi-structured interview protocol [Video file]. Retrieved September 20, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z8XV1S7548

Weiss, R. S. (1995). Learning from strangers: The art and method of qualitative interview studies. New York: Free Press.